It's all the media's fault

Thank you Polly Toynbee (Comment, November 14). Why has the press become so negative? It's not just the press but the journalists on Newsnight and Channel 4 News and question politicians as if everything they say is lies and it is their job to catch them out. We can all find things wrong with aspects of government policy but we can also find many things right. Yet the impression from the media is that the government does nothing right. As a trainee parent my biggest lesson has been that it is easy to find fault and much harder to praise. So let's have more articles from people who have something positive to say about life. Catch the mood articulated by Tony Blair, that the world order is changing for the better.
Mike Buckle Swansea, Wales

America could have obliterated the Taliban, but it bombed just sufficiently to render the Taliban position unrealistic, leaving the door open for a change of sides, minimising casualties. The black sheep is the BBC, which has sought to decry American efforts, and concentrated on limited civilian deaths to claim the coalition is falling apart. It is guilty of falsely undermining the public perception of events. John Simpson has concentrated upon the irrelevant, ignoring the elegance of the greater scheme. Our love affair with European bureaucracy and human rights ensures that had Britain been in charge of this war, our effort would have dissolved into a slough of incompetence. We even can't defend our own borders against insurgents.Philip Hodson Newmarket, Suffolk

In your report of Clare Short's criticisms (Short attacks media over foreign news, November 16) you quote David Lloyd from Channel 4 saying people are not interested in obscure arms deals. Our research, conducted with the BBC, showed the opposite. We interviewed audience groups and found that when people did understand how systems of trade affected the world, then their level of interest greatly increased. When they understood that they could be buying diamonds that financed landmines in Angola, many demanded to know why such relationships were not explained on the news. It is the decisions by broadcasters to go for eye-catching images and to turn factual programming into an "odditorium" of the dramatic that is turning viewers off. Prof Greg Philo Glasgow University Media Group